ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH (26 page)

he demon lord, Ravana’s brother, kept his distance, but even from here Ash sensed the power surging within the immortal’s spirit.

“You must turn back,” he said simply.

“I served your great brother, my lord.” Savage stood up now, coolly appraising the rakshasa prince.

“You serve only yourself, Savage.” Vibheeshana’s voice sank low and the threat within it was unmistakable. “And do not take me for a fool. I know why you are here.”

“I also know of the vow you made to Rama.” Savage smiled contemptuously. “The deal you made so that you could take Ravana’s throne when he died.”

“Deal?” asked Ash. “What deal?”

Savage continued, his eyes never leaving the demon lord’s. “It’s well known that Vibheeshana sided against his own kind, that he served Rama and betrayed his brother.”

“My brother was on the path of destruction. If he had only listened, he would not have brought doom upon himself and his people.”

“He died honourably, as a warrior should,” snarled Jackie. “Not cowering behind the skirts of a mortal, begging for his life.”

“You forget your place, dog,” said Vibheeshana. His eyes glowed and the air hummed electric around him, momentarily wrapping him in a haze of heat and power. The water under his feet bubbled and hissed. The demon lord hadn’t made a move, but those glowing brands, the cool confidence, the utter lack of fear couldn’t have been a clearer warning.

Do not mess with me.

Savage, Jackie, one rather petrified hyena rakshasa and Ash. Against a demon lord. They should quit now. He could wipe the floor with them. But then Gemma would stay dead. Ash had come so far, but Vibheeshana had powers that were off the scale. Ash tried to use his
Marma Adi
to search for some weakness, but the golden spots never settled on the rakshasa; they just flickered and drifted away. It was all too unclear.

Vibheeshana shook his head. “I saved our race, our existence. Do you not understand? There were those in Rama’s army who wished our total annihilation. For what Ravana had done, can you truly blame them?”

Savage straightened. “You swore to serve Rama, and in exchange he gave you the throne of Lanka.”

“Even when it sank beneath the waves, I did my duty. There are treasures here that must never leave.” Vibheeshana met Savage’s gaze. “Treasures you cannot begin to comprehend.”

“Look, sir,” said Ash. “We want to awaken this.” He held out the Koh-i-noor. “We just want the Black Mandala.”

“Child, you have no idea what you ask.”

Ash shoved the diamond back in the satchel. “It’s the only way I can save my friend.”

“Stand aside, lord,” said Savage.

For a guy facing a demon lord who was master of nine of the sorceries, Savage seemed incredibly sure of himself. Ash hadn’t moved and, he noticed, neither had Jackie.

Savage joined Ash. “You are my ace of spades, Ash.”

“He’s already tried to kill me with the dream,” said Ash.

“No,” answered Savage. “He used your own guilt against you. That’s subtle, but once you know the trick, easily beaten.” Fire sparked within Savage’s black eyes. “Remember your oath, Lord Vibheeshana? Your oath to your master and king, Rama?”

“I remember.”

“You swore to serve him
for ever
.”

The demon lord’s gaze faltered. “I did.”

What was going on?

Savage put his hand on Ash’s shoulder. “Just ask him for the Black Mandala. He’ll give it to you.”

“Why would he give
me
it? I’m just…”

Ash Mistry. Yes. But you’ve also been Ashoka, first emperor of India. And a Trojan noble. And a Spartan warrior.

And, once, a prince of Ayodhya. Rama.

Ash looked at Vibheeshana. “Give me the Black Mandala, my lord.”

Vibheeshana raised his hand. “Sire, please reconsider. Come no further.”

Savage pointed his cane at him. “And who’s going to stop us?”

The sound of metal sliding across metal, the sound of razors caressing each other, was unmistakable. A figure stepped out from behind a nearby column, lithe, clad in green scales, and emerald-eyed. Her long black hair had been swept up and tied in a compact braid. In her hand twitched the urumi, the serpent sword. The four whip-like blades hissed with anticipation.

“I am,” said Parvati.

“
ou took your time, Ash,” said Parvati, her eyes never leaving Savage’s.

The hyena rakshasa cackled and Jackie dropped to all fours beside it, now more beast than woman, all except for her deformed head, a grotesque amalgam of both. Jackie and the hyena spread out to either side like stalking predators, wary, but searching for an opening in Parvati’s defences.

The hyena sniffed the air. It paused, eyes widening as the hall echoed with a deep-chested growl. A huge tiger appeared from between the thickset columns, his golden eyes glistening with pending violence. Khan had joined the party.

Wow. This gathering was about to go cataclysmically bad any second now. Ash came closer to the tense trio of Parvati, Vibheeshana and Savage. He needed to calm things way, way down.

“Listen, Parvati, I need Savage alive,” he said. “He can help me.”

“Stand aside, Ash.”

“Listen! He can resurrect Gemma with the Brahma-aastra. I know he can.”

Parvati showed absolutely no emotion. “There are bigger things at stake than a single girl.” She raised her fist and the urumi blades began to weave in the air as though they possessed life of their own. “This has been a long time coming, Savage.”

Parvati flicked the urumi and the blades whipped out, four silver tongues of lightning, any one capable of decapitating a man. Ash leaped between Parvati and Savage, his katar ready. With one hand he shoved Savage aside, and with the dagger he knocked one, then two of the blades off their path. The third shot across his leg and the fourth sliced his face, drawing a thin, stinging line across his cheek. A few centimetres lower and it would have opened his throat.

“Step aside, Ash.” Parvati drew the urumi in, slowly circling to get a shot at Savage.

Ash touched his stinging cheek. “What was that?”

“A warning. There won’t be another.”

“You’re my friend, Parvati, have you forgotten?”

“You’re mine, Ash.” Her steps barely stirred the water. “But if you don’t get out of the way, I will kill you.”

Jackie, aided by the remaining hyena rakshasa, circled Khan. Her bristles were up and stiff, and she slavered and snapped angrily at the silent, bright-eyed tiger-rakshasa.

Ash had a chance to save Gemma, and Parvati wasn’t going to let him. What did one more death mean to the demon princess? Nothing; less than nothing.

But she was his friend. Ash lowered his katar. She deserved one more chance.

“Please, Parvati. Let me save Gemma.”

Parvati paused and the four steel whips fell silent beside her. Then her lips thinned with harsh conviction and she replied grimly, “No.”

Fire rose in his veins and intense heat flooded his heart, accelerating it and opening floodgates of adrenaline and more. The Soma. He shivered with the growing power, the brightest pain focused in the centre of his forehead.

Golden lights spread over Parvati, lights only Ash could see. Not only did he spy the golden death points, but he glimpsed glittering lines, paths, through the space between them. They ran from her to him and back again, ever-changing patterns of attack and defence. Moves and feints exposed themselves so he could see the fight spread out before him. He watched a weaving path that would mean his death, and he watched new snaking lines shine bright, showing him how to turn defeat into lethal victory.

Ash closed his eyes. He breathed deeply, feeling the Soma possess him. Then, eyes narrowed so as not to be blinded by the bright, shining paths all around him, he surrendered himself to the dance of Kali.

arvati shot past Ash, intent on killing Savage. Ash ducked under the screaming steel whips and knocked her arm aside, spoiling the attack. She stared at him for a fraction of a second, bewildered, then retaliated with a shock wave of jabs and kicks that slid and slipped between his defences, forcing him back. The paths exploded in all directions and Ash reacted like lightning, parrying a finger strike to his throat, untangling himself from a choke hold, and launching his own counter-attacks against half a dozen bone-breaking strikes, any one of which would have crippled him.

Without the Kali-aastra, without the Soma, he would have been dead ten times over in just a few seconds. He somersaulted high over Parvati, bouncing off the nearby column to land ten metres away.

Elsewhere, Savage fought Vibheeshana. Fire and shimmering walls of heat burst all around the Englishman as the demon lord threw a wave of ice daggers at him. The hall thundered with the sound of the supernatural forces the two men summoned. Walls creaked and columns buckled and shook.

Ash’s body ached and he was panting already. He rested, crouching, trying to get his breath back, trying to get some cool air into his burning and bruised lungs.

She’s trying to kill me.

Parvati stepped backwards on unsteady legs, sweat dripping over her pale face. She put her palm against a red swelling on her cheek.

“That… hurt.” There was a hint of a cold smile as she said it. “Not bad, Ash.”

Had he done that? He hadn’t even realised.

“It doesn’t have to be like this, Parvati.”

“Then stand aside and let me kill Savage.”

The air temperature dropped ten degrees and the water drained away from around Ash’s ankles. He felt the air rush around him, a freezing wind that accelerated and became a scream.

Savage drew up a wall of water, first ten, then fifteen, then twenty metres high. The wave shivered and undulated, held in magical stasis as frost and then ice spread across the surface, creating a solid wall. The ice creaked and groaned. Splinters, long dagger-shaped shards of frozen water, sheared off and multiplied.

Ash dived behind a fallen column as Savage sent wave after wave of razor-sharp spikes across the hall towards Vibheeshana. Small skin-slicing splinters, others large enough to skewer a horse, and still others the size of boulders, exploded as they smashed into the stone columns and punched craters into the mosaic, hurling up more shrapnel. The ceiling shook and quivered as the columns that supported it and the sea above began to weaken. Vibheeshana stumbled back as the minute blades cut his skin, and then he whipped his hands in front of him so the ice evaporated into a bellowing cloud of steam, filling the hall with hot mist.

Howls and roars echoed from the spreading fog as Khan and Jackie fought. The hyena rakshasa lay dead on the floor, its throat torn out, head still attached by a strip of fur.

And Ash stalked Parvati.